America’s Food Supply Is Rigged—Here’s How to Opt Out | Vani Hari & Dr. Shebani Sethi

Mark Hyman

Feb 10, 2025

Episode description

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are identified as the leading cause of preventable death globally. These foods are chemically altered, stripped of their natural structures, and filled with additives, sugars, unhealthy fats, and preservatives, resulting in products that offer little to no nutritional benefit while contributing significantly to chronic disease.

In this episode, I talk with Vani Hari and Dr. Shebani Sethi about why ultra-processed foods are not just a health risk—they are a public health crisis.

Vani Hari is the food activist behind FoodBabe.com, a NY Times best-selling author of 4 books, founder of the organic products brand Truvani, and was named one of the “Most Influential People on the Internet” by Time magazine. Hari’s viral testimony before the US Senate sparked a massive movement to stop American food companies from poisoning their own citizens with ingredients they don’t use in other countries. Hari founded Food Babe to spread information about what is really in the American food supply. She teaches people how to make the right purchasing decisions at the grocery store, how to live an organic lifestyle, and how to travel healthfully around the world. Vani has gathered hundreds of thousands of petitions to change the food system and influenced how major food giants like Kraft, Subway, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks create their products, steering them towards more healthful policies.

Dr. Shebani Sethi is a double board-certified physician in Obesity Medicine and Psychiatry. She is the Founding Director of Stanford University’s Metabolic Psychiatry program and Silicon Valley Metabolic Psychiatry, a new center in the San Francisco Bay Area focused on optimizing brain health by integrating low carb nutrition, comprehensive psychiatric care, and treatment of obesity with associated metabolic disease.

Full length episodes can be found here:

Why the Last Thing that Should Ever Eat is Ultra Processed Foods

How To Be A Food Activist In Your Own Kitchen

How Does Ultra-Processed Food Affect Our Mental Health?

This episode is brought to you by BIOptimizers.

Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use code HYMAN10 to save 10%.

Mindsip insights from this episode:

Avoid toxic packaging to protect your health

It's not just the food itself; chemicals like BPA, phthalates, and microplastics from packaging can leach into your food and harm your health.

#BPA

#microplastics

Beware of natural flavors that manipulate cravings

"Natural flavors" are lab-made additives that trick your brain into craving more food because your body is still searching for the nutrition it expects from that taste.

#craving

#nutrition

Identify trans fat loopholes in food labeling

Food companies get around trans fat bans by using chemicals like mono- and diglycerides, which still contain small amounts of trans fats.

#processed-food

#trans-fat

Eliminate ultra-processed foods to combat leading cause of death

Ultra-processed food is the number one cause of death in the world today, according to the Global Burden of Disease study.

#obesity

#processed-food

Avoid health claims on food labels for better choices

A simple rule for healthy eating is that if a food product has a health claim on its label, it's likely not good for you.

#nutrition

Reduce ultra-processed food intake to lower anxiety and depression risk

Eating ultra-processed foods is linked to a 48-53% increased risk of anxiety and depression, similar to its link to heart disease.

#mental-health

#processed-food

Choose whole foods over ultra-processed diets for weight management

In a study where twins ate the same amount of calories, the one on an ultra-processed diet gained weight while the one on a whole-foods diet lost weight.